1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus and a recording method in a recording apparatus which can prevent an improper recording such as platen printing from occurring by judging whether a scheduled recording is possible at a position where transportation of a recording medium is stopped when detecting the back end of the recording medium which is being transported and by stopping performing the scheduled recording in the case in which the recording is impossible.
2. Related Art
Since the past years, as for a recording apparatus such as a serial printer, JP-A-2001-232882 (for example, paragraphs [0070] to [0077] and FIGS. 5 and 6) and JP-A-2006-212923 have disclosed the superposition control technique in which a paper feeding operation and a carriage operation are partially simultaneously performed in order to shorten the entire printing processing period. The superposition control technique conducts the paper feeding operation by driving a paper feeding motor (PF motor) after finishing printing processing of the amount of one pass. After that, a carriage motor (CR motor) is driven at a predetermined timing before the PF motor stops. By such an operation, it is possible to promptly start the printing operation at the same time when the paper feeding operation stops. Accordingly, this technique is advantageous in that it is possible to shorten the entire printing processing period over a technique in which the carriage operation is started by driving the CR motor after the stopping of the paper feeding operation.
For example, JP-A-2001-232882 discloses a recording apparatus which judges whether the back end of paper runs off a recording position of a recording head toward the downstream side in a paper transportation direction when paper feeding is stopped in the case in which the length of paper in the paper transportation direction (the paper transportation direction length) is shorter than a setup size, and which suspends the printing operation by issuing an order of printing refusal although the carriage is already driven in the case in which it is judged that the back end of the paper runs off the recording position. That is, the remaining amount of override area (printable range) is acquired on the basis of a counting value of an override counter which is driven after the back end of the paper passes a paper detection sensor and the remaining amount of paper feeding by a PF motor is also acquired. Thus, in the case in which it is judged that the remaining amount of paper feeding is the same or larger than the remaining amount of the override area, the printing refusal command is issued. Accordingly, in the case in which the back end of the paper has passed the recording position of the recording head, the printing operation is suspended by the printing refusal command and thus it is possible to prevent platen printing from occurring without wasting printing processing time.
However, a recording head is typically provided with a plurality of nozzles arranged in the paper transportation direction, and although JP-A-2001-232882 discloses that it is possible to prevent the platen printing from occurring, it likely happens that a printing is given to the platen as well as to the paper when movement of the nozzles (nozzle row) of the recording head is interrupted by the paper in the paper position after the stopping of the paper feeding. In this case, in spite of having been printable in the paper, there is a problem that the printing will be stopped. In the case in which a desired portion of an image cannot be printed in the paper because the paper is short, the printing may be terminated after some portion of the image is partially printed. In such a case, it is desirable that a printable part of the image is printed. For example, even if a marginal printing is set up, it is desirable that a printable range of the image is printed on the paper, losing the margin of the paper.